Appendix 4 - The Clairvoyance Of Mrs. B.
At the time of this volume going to press the resultsobtained by clients of this medium have been forty-two successesout of fifty attempts, checked and docketted by the author. Thisseries forms a most conclusive proof of spirit clairvoyance. Anattempt has been made by Mr. E. F. Benson, who examined some ofthe letters, to explain the results upon the grounds oftelepathy. He admits that "The tastes, appearance and characterof the deceased are often given, and many names are introduced bythe medium, some not traceable, but most of them identical withrelations or friends." Such an admission would alone banishthought-reading as an explanation, for there is no evidence inexistence to show that this power ever reaches such perfectionthat one who possesses it could draw the image of a deadman from your brain, fit a correct name to him, and thenassociate him with all sorts of definite and detailed actions inwhich he was engaged. Such an explanation is not an explanationbut a pretence. But even if one were to allow such a theory topass, there are numerous incidents in these accounts which couldnot be explained in such a fashion, where unknown details havebeen given which were afterwards verified, and even wheremistakes in thought upon the part of the sitter were corrected bythe medium under spirit guidance. Personally I believe that themedium's own account of how she gets her remarkable results isthe absolute truth, and I can imagine no other fashion in whichthey can be explained. She has, of course, her bad days, and theconditions are always worst when there is an inquisitorial ratherthan a religious atmosphere in the interview. This intermittentcharacter of the results is, according to my experience,characteristic of spirit clairvoyance as compared with thought-reading, which can, in its more perfect form, become almostautomatic within certain marked limits. I may add that theconstant practice of some psychical researchers to take nonotice at all of the medium's own account of how he or sheattains results, but to substitute some complicated and unprovedexplanation of their own, is as insulting as it is unreasonable. It has been alleged as a slur upon Mrs. B's results and characterthat she has been twice prosecuted by the police. This is, infact, not a slur upon the medium but rather upon the law, whichis in so barbarous a condition that the true seer fares no betterthan the impostor, and that no definite psychic principles arerecognised. A medium may under such circumstances be a martyrrather than a criminal, and a conviction ceases to be a stainupon the character.